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Building an Academic Network for Expanding Social Entrepreneurship

Warner WoodworthMarriott School / Brigham Young University

Discussion at Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship

Oxford, England

March 28-31, 2004

© Copyright 20042

Introduction

This informal session at Oxford discusses my model for building social

entrepreneurship with emphasis on university programs—at BYU especially.

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Definition

Social en-tre-pre-neur n: one who conceives, organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of an enterprise created for the good of society.

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Questions for today:

• What is the role of social entrepreneurship today in academic settings?

• Examples? Extent?• Factors for growing it?• What mechanisms are needed to build

civil society through social entrepreneurship? i.e., What is the architecture of social entrepreneurship?

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Moral Energy1Individual Passion2

New Social Inventions3Facilitating Institutions4

Intellectual Capital5Philanthropic Funding6Emerging New Sectors7

Social Capital8Advocacy Information9

Social Entrepreneurial Actions10

As with all good structures, we will build from the ground up.6

To me there are 10 characteristics in building social

entrepreneurship. In the slides which follow, I briefly describe

each of them, particularly as they relate to academic settings.

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I describe social entrepreneurs as “heroes,”people with visions and strategies for building a better world. They dream of changing the world, and they move from design to implementation, having significant impacts in building a true civil society.

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Social Entrepreneurship Today• Growing number of books such as David

Bornstein’s How to Change the World.• Articles in various magazines and the popular

press.• New programs and courses not only at BYU, but

Harvard, Oxford, Duke and Stanford.• Wharton’s faculty recently selected Muhammad

Yunus of Grameen Bank as one of the 25 most influential business leaders of the past quarter century because of his impact as a social entrepreneur.

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In exploring the architecture of social entrepreneurship, I will take a “worm’s eye” view, as Yunus calls it, not a bird’s eye view from above where the powerful and wealthy occupy their thrones and boardrooms. Instead, we will take a bottom-up perspective.

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“It is an experience of incomparable value to have learned to see the great events of the history of the world from beneath; from the viewpoint of the useless, the suspect, the powerless, the oppressed, the despised – in a word, from the viewpoint of those who suffer.”

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer(Holocaust victim of Nazi

concentration camp)

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1 - Moral Energy

• Foundation of Good Will• Sense of Awareness

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Moral Energy continued…

The moral energy required for building civil society must be based on a foundation of good will. When Vaclav Havel was freed from years of jail as a political prisoner, his life soon changed from being a dissident who criticized Czechoslovakia authorities as pawns of the USSR, to becoming president of a new, free, democratic country.

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Moral Energy continued…

Havel then spoke of the thing that surprised him the most when he traveled to meet with leaders of Western Europe, saying he was amazed at “the great reservoir of good will” – the West – people who wanted to help the Czech people, who wanted to promote Easter European democracy, who wanted to uplift the downtrodden and oppressed Czechs.

= Foundation of Good Will 14

Moral Energy continued…

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

= Sense of Awareness

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2 - Individual Passion

• Visions of Change• Radical Steps• Willingness to Experiment

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Individual Passion continued…

“Imaginization!” Dare to think and dream of a new world. Remember Buddha’s teaching 2,500 years ago: “With our thoughts we make the world.”

=Visions of Change

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Individual Passion continued…

IMAGINIZATION!• To Explore• To Dream

=Visions of Change

Present State

Ideal State

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Individual Passion continued…

“Until now the philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it.”

-Karl Marx

= Radical Steps

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Individual Passion continued…

“The passionate are the only advocates who always persuade. The simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.”

René Descartes

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3 - New Social Inventions

• Non-governmental Organizations• Strategic Design and Implementation• Capacity-Building Tools

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New Social Inventions continued…Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like Enterprise Mentors International created by some graduate students and I in 1989-90 to fight poverty in the Philippines.

http://www.enterprise-mentors.org/MeetOurClients.asp

Case: Disabled widow makes a life for her children

MINDANAO, Philippines – Twenty nine-year-old Liza Tano says that her “life is a constant struggle.” Several years ago, Liza lost her leg in a car accident. Three years ago her husband, Jose, died of a heart ailment and she was left to raise two small children alone.

After the loss of her husband, Liza took her children out of school because she was earning only pennies a day selling barbecue chicken from her door step. She could barely feed her children and certainly could not afford to send them to school. Despite her situation she never gave up and knew that someday God would bless her. 22

New Social Inventions continued…

http://www.enterprise-mentors.org/MeetOurClients.asp

When Liza attended a Mindanao Enterprise Development Foundation (MEDF) information meeting last September, she was impressed by the group’s mission of assisting the poor. When she learned that she qualified, she immediately joined a group and took the group training.

When Liza received her first loan of $40, she used it to open and stock a small sari sari (convenience) store. She used her second loan of $100 to add new merchandise including kitchen utensils and blankets to her inventory.

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New Social Inventions continued…

Grameen Bank, started by social entrepreneur Dr. Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, is strategically designed to combat poverty in one of the poorest countries on earth. In implementing its plan, Grameen has given out over $4 billion to the “poorest of the poor,”empowered over 3 million women, and helped lift millions more out of poverty.

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New Social Inventions continued…

http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/gallery/photows2.html

Grameen Case = Strategic Design and Implementation

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New Social Inventions continued…The 16 decisions of Grameen Bank

1. We shall follow and advance the four principles of Grameen Bank –Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work – in all walks of life.

2. Prosperity we shall bring to our families.

http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/the16.html

=Capacity-Building Tools 26

4 - Facilitating Institutions

• Social Purpose Enterprises• Government Legitimacy for Social

Justice

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Facilitating Institutions continued…

For civil society to flourish, business and government must support social entrepreneurial activities. This means that government legitimacy is essential for nonprofit creation and growth.

Cases: – U.S. Agency for International Development

(USAID)– United Nations.

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Facilitating Institutions continued…

Anita Roddick, outspoken advocate for social enterprise and founder of The Body Shop, a UK firm now spread around the world:

“In terms of power and influence, you can forget the church, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business – I believe it is now more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership. The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.”

-- Anita Roddick= Social Purpose Enterprises

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Facilitating Institutions continued…

“The revolution is for organizations to become the place where our personal values and economics intersect. Reforming our organizations so that our spirit is answered, and our ability to serve customers in the broadest sense is guaranteed.”

– Peter Block, Stewardship

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Facilitating Institutions continued…

http://www.tomsofmaine.com/

Case: CEO Tom Chapple provides natural care products profits shared with NGOs and charities, linking the founder’s ethics with ecological values.

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5 - Intellectual Capital

• New Institutes• Crossing Traditional Disciplines• Innovative Universities• Social Action/Impact Research

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Intellectual Capital continued…

In fostering social entrepreneurship for building civil society, a number of important new research / training centers have sprung up around the world. They hold conferences, conduct seminars, and do future forecasts regarding the rise of NGOs, etc.

Examples include the following:

33= New Institutes http://www.socialent.org/

34= Crossing Traditional Disciplines

http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/results/index.cfm

35= Innovative Universities

http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/html/faculty_skoll_main.asp/

36= Social Action / Impact Research http://www.aspeninstitute.org/

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6 - Philanthropic Funding

• Financial Grants / Foundations• Companies with Social Mission / Double

Bottom Line• Corporate Partnerships

38= Financial Grants / Foundations http://www.skollfoundation.org/about/background.asp

39= Social Mission / Double Bottom Line

http://www.benjerry.com/index.cfm

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Philanthropic Funding continued…A growing number of companies are going beyond financial goals to create a “social mission” and/or a “double bottom line” that propels the firm to not only do well financially, but to do good socially. Others are building partnerships that link their corporation with a nonprofit agency such as United Way or Habitat for Humanity. Huge companies like Deutsche Bank, Nike and Hewlett-Packard are even funding microcredit in the Third World.

=Corporate Partnerships

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7 - Emerging New Sectors

• Nonprofit Networks• Third Sector Development• Faith-Based Sector

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We are also seeing the rise of new sectors created by social entrepreneurship. They include nonprofit networks such as the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, the Charity Channel, and the Society for Non-Profit Organizations. Each of these exists to train and educate nonprofit professionals by sharing data, newsletters, news links, book reviews, job opportunities, funding sources, etc.

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Emerging New Sectors continued…

= Nonprofit Networkshttp://www.echoinggreen.org/ 44

= Third Sector Groupshttp://www.istr.org/

45= Third Sector Groups http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/home/index.cfm

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Emerging New Sectors continued…Another example of citizens taking action might be called the “faith-based sector.” To illustrate: A Salt Lake City LDS stake decided in 1998 to mobilize its summer youth project beyond its members well-being in Utah. They raised $150,000 and sent 70 volunteers to the Sacred Valley of the Inca in Peru where they initiated a humanitarian venture to empower poor indigenous groups. That effort grew into the foundation of Chasqui Humanitarian, an NGO that raises over $300,000 a year for development programs in Peru and Bolivia.

= Citizen / Faith-based Sectors

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Faith – based Sector…

http://chasqui.org/48

On the Role of Churches in Society…

“We may have to repent in this generation, not for the violent actions of bad people, but for the inaction of good people who have the notion that time will cure all evils.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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8 - Social Capital

• Build Trust, Mutual Support, and Reciprocity

• Strengthen the Commons through Cooperation

• Develop a Sense of Community

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The eighth level of architecture in the building of civil society is that of social capital: actions that build trust between people and groups, provide mutual support and social reciprocity, rather than isolation and a lack of caring.

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Social Capital continued…One example here is that of Joan Dixon, a former MOB student of mine who went on to earn a Ph. D. at the University of Massachusetts in nonformal education. After years of working for nonprofits in Africa and Indonesia, she returned to Provo where she has spent the past two years as a volunteer establishing the Timpanogos Community Network. It is the first time various, often competing government agencies, nonprofits, NGOs, and business entities have reduced the barriers and conflicts between themselves to begin working collectively to assist the poor.

= Strengthen the Commons 52

Social Capital continued…

Another example is that of local Utah groups such as the Ouelessebougou-Utah Alliance that has expanded its sense of community beyond Salt Lake City and/or even Utah, to include a group of 72 poor indigenous villages in drought-stricken southern Mali. For over 15 years humanitarian work has been generated including schools built, wells dug, healthcare provided, vegetable gardens grown, and so on.

= Sense of Community

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9 - Advocacy Information

• Transparency/NGOs• New Print Media• Online Web Resources

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Advocacy Information continued…

Yet another dimension of building civil society is the growing number of institutions that advocate studies and other sources of information. Such groups are not neutral, but are value-based in terms of such ideas as democracy, grassroots power, and so on. Such organizations increasingly are transparent regarding all they do, including such things as identifying their staff and boards, sources of funding, making all expenses and annual reports open to the public.

55= Transparency

http://www.transparency.org/index.html

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Advocacy Information continued…

This more open and transparent approach to advocacy includes lots of new “print media,”including newsletters, such as that of ACCION and Katalysis, two well-known microfinance organizations.

There are a number of new “online resources”that promote social entrepreneurship such as the following slide on the magazine, Social Edge.

57http://skoll.socialedge.org/= On-Line Resources 58

10 - Social Entrepreneurial Actions

• Break from the Establishment• Internal Motivation• Unleash Great Ideas• Champion Change• Mechanisms for Growth and

Sustainability

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• “There are two parties, the establishment and the movement.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850s)

• “Don’t just do things differently, do different things.”-Warner Woodworth (1980s)

Social entrepreneurial actions necessitate that we break from tradition and do something new. The following two quotations make it clear:

= Break from the Establishment

Soci al Entrepr eneuri al Acti ons continued…

“We must work from our own values and elevate their

influence to those of men.”Petra Kelly

German activist and co-founder of the Green Party

= Internal Motivation

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Social Entrepreneurial ActionsOne superb example is that of UNITUS, an NGO

we created in 2000 to accelerate microfinance by reaching out and strengthening small, well-organized NGOs that have good managers, effective boards, outsanding clients, but lack adequate funding to really have a significant impact.

At UNITUS, we’ve evaluated dozens of potential candidates and selected two so far to capitalize: Pro mujer in Mexico ($1.75 million) and SKS India ($4 million). With these new funds, each organization was able to expand rapidly and move toward becoming truly sustainable.

=Mechanisms for Growth and Sustainability62http://www.unitus.com/graphics/secondarypages/

resourcecenter/mediaresouces/presentation.pdf

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Civil SocietyAll the preceding 10 elements culminate in the creation Civil Society! It consists of the following--

• Empowerment of the Poor• Socio-economic Justice / Equality / Sacrifice • Building New Alliances• Turning the Pyramid Upside Down• Evolving Metamorphosis/Continuous Learning• Ethically-Driven Transformation

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Universities and Social Entrepreneurship Case: First Year H.E.L.P. International Results (1999)

• 79 students trained as social entrepreneurs• 46 actually went to Honduras summer or fall 1999 • Raised over $116,000• 47 village banks were created• Over 800 jobs were created benefiting some 4,000

victims of Hurricane Mitch• Developed new, small banks for poorest of the poor:

Accion Contra La Pobreza (ACP)• Contributed over 4,000 community service hours in local

government projects, refugee camps, schools, rural health clinics, orphanages, etc.

• H.E.L.P. is now (2004) in its sixth year! Over 300 students from BYU and other universities have spent 2-4 months each in at least one of eight countries.

= Empowerment of the Poor

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BYU Social Entrepreneurs

Students operating as consultants/change-agents around the globe helping marginalized people, especially Third World women, to learn new skills, become empowered, and move toward self-reliance. These BYU individuals are trained in problem-solving and participatory evaluation methods to assist the poorest of the poor in their quest toward a higher quality of life.

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H.E.L.P. InternationalThe Difference Between Social Entrepreneurs and Traditional Interns

H.E.L.P. Volunteers are wonderful examples of the difference between the student who merely fulfills a summer internship, and a social entrepreneur who is out to make waves. While the former play it safe, the latter are global change agents. Here’s my list of factors that distinguish the two:

Social Entrepreneurs•Do what’s needed•High energy/work in the field•“If it ain’t broke, break it”•Focus on society’s major challenges: poverty,

illiteracy, poor nutrition, etc.•Work in poor communities/enjoy sweating•Alter the system•Design new tasks with partners•Enjoy laboring in the real world•Run people-centered projects•Risk-takers/Focus on societal issues such as

joblessness and hunger•Doers of the word•Want to transform human society•Exciting/unpredictable work that often goes late

into the night•Thrive on responsibility•Free spirits who initiate new programs•Wild radicals out to change or overthrow the world

Traditional Interns•Do what they’re told•Low energy/sit at a desk for a summer•“If it ain’t broke, leave it as is”•Focus on bureaucratic stuff: hours, pay,

and other benefits, etc.•Work in an office/enjoy air conditioning•Fit in the system•Are assigned tasks by management•Endure lots of meetings/planning•Run copy machines•Cautious/Focus on lists in their Franklin-Covey

planners•Hearers of the word•Emphasis is on a salary and college credit•Dull, boring work from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and

then be done•Shun responsibility•Conform to organizational demands•Routine, traditional, conservative personalities

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Mother Teresa was a social entrepreneur who created the “Sisters of Charity” in India, a new religious order, and then spread its impact in suffering countries around the globe.

“It is a very great poverty to decide that a child must die that you might live as you wish.”

-Mother Teresa of Calcutta

= Socio-economic Justice / Equality / Sacrifice 68

A key element in building civil society is that today’s social entrepreneurs and NGOs are developing new connections among themselves, and aligning where viable with government and the private sector. This leads to collaborative problem-solving, instead of conflict. And the outcome is new synergy that goes beyond any one institution acting alone.

= Building New Alliances

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“Until you march to the barricades, with the workers of the world, life has no meaning.”

– Jean-Paul Sartre

= Turning the Pyramid Upside Down 70

“May your quest for knowledge become a passion for justice; may your newly acquired authority to speak move you to speak up for victims of malediction and misfortune. Remember that power is to be shared, not imposed. Remember that freedom must be extolled, never ridiculed. Education must be used for humanity, not against it – not to obtain power, but to humanize it – not to impose your will or your views on others, but to discover theirs, in an atmosphere of respect and understanding.”

– Elie Wiesel

= Evolving Metamorphosis / Continuous Learning

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Finally, to build civil society, we need to undergo an ethically-driven transformation, first in ourselves, and then rippling throughout our various institutions and structures. The final few slides wrap up my call to action: We’re out to change the world!

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“Give of yourself through social tithing.”

- Warner Woodworth

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Never forget the words of that great social entrepreneur:

“You must be the change you wish to see in

the world.”-Mahatma

Gandhi74

“Make it your quest to find and

fulfill your informal calling in life.”

-Warner Woodworth

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In Sum: Become a Social Entrepreneur!

--END--

-Thank you very much-

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Postscript

So here at Oxford, what might we do as academics to transform our universities as incubators of social entrepreneurship?

(Open Discussion)

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Possible Next Steps

1. Build a website of academic programs that foster social entrepreneurship.

2. Collect what each of us is doing at our respective institutions.

3. Share course offerings and best practices.4. Explore the viability of establishing a new

Academy of Management Interest Group on social entrepreneurship.